Anti-aircraft missiles found near Baghdad-military

BAGHDAD, Feb 17 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces found 50 surface-to-air missiles in a weapons cache near Baghdad today, an Iraqi military spokesman said.

''These were Russian-made surface-to-air missiles that were still useable,'' said Brigadier Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi general in charge of a new security crackdown in Baghdad.

Moussawi did not give the location of the cache, one of the largest to be found since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He said no arrests had been made.

Seven US military and private security helicopters have been shot down in Iraq over the past month. The US military said ''sophisticated weaponry'' was probably responsible for the downing of one but that machinegun fire accounted for the rest.

The US military acknowledges that some of its aircraft have been brought down by missiles in the past but refuses to give any numbers.

At least 29 US Army helicopters have been shot down since 2003, a figure that does not include Marine Corps aircraft, a US general said last weekend.

REUTERS SP BD1951